Boulder County assessor: Home values showed little change 2010-2012

BOULDER -- Countywide, changes were generally small in the median values of Boulder County homes between mid-2010 and mid-2012, according to County Assessor Jerry Roberts.

Roberts said his office's findings in its latest round of property reappraisals "really represents what was a flat market" for single-family homes during that two-year period.

That, however, actually marked something of an improvement from mid-2008 to mid-2010 -- the previous reappraisal period -- when the total countywide median value of such homes fell by about 2.6 percent from mid-2008.

"The market has rallied quite a bit since June 2010," Roberts said, leading to "some recovery" in median home values, but "it's been modest."

Boulder County median home values

Boulder County's residential market trends varied from community to community and region to region during the June 30, 2010, to June 30, 2012, period covered in the latest appraisals.

Western Boulder County -- including the communities of Lyons, Jamestown, Ward, Nederland, Eldorado Springs, Allenspark and the county's unincorporated foothills and mountain areas -- saw an overall 4 percent drop in single-family residential property values during that time, according to figures from Roberts' office.

But the median market value of single-family homes in rural areas of eastern Boulder County increased by 3 percent between mid-2010 to mid-2012.

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In Longmont, the median percentage change in residential properties' market values dropped by 1 percent during the latest two-year reappraisal period that ended last June 30.

But Roberts said Longmont is seeing fewer foreclosures and the other factors that contributed to a 5.5 median decrease in citywide residential property values between mid-2006 and mid-2008, and another 4 percent slump in the city's residential real estate market values between mid-2008 and mid-2010.

In the latest appraisal, Niwot also had a 1 percent drop in the median market value of its homes from mid-2010 to mid-2012.

In Boulder, the median market-value for single-family homes increased by 2 percent following a 1.7 drop in Boulder's total residential property values from mid-2008 to mid-2010.

Elsewhere, there was virtually a zero percentage change in the median market value of single-family homes in Lafayette, Louisville, Superior and Gunbarrel and the Boulder County portion of Erie, Roberts said.

Two years ago, the county assessor's April 2011 announcement of its previous reappraisal results showed that as of mid-2010, residential property values had fallen from mid-2008 levels in Niwot, Lyons, Lafayette, Boulder, Nederland and the Boulder County portion of Erie, but increased in Superior, Louisville and Eldorado Springs.

Roberts said there was still an overall decline in residential values in the latter half of 2010, followed by a flattening out of home values in 2011 and a market upswing that began in 2012.

Roberts said the latest reappraisal indicated that by last June 30, there's been "some modest increased value" for single-family homes in the city of Boulder, "with condominiums showing small decreases -- except there were some increases for newer high-end urban-style condos."

He said that for single-family homes in the county's unincorporated plains areas, there'd been a "mild-increase in values" from mid-2010 levels.

The Boulder County Assessor's Office's estimates of properties' worth as of mid-2012 will show up in the new "notices of value" that Roberts' staff will be mailing May 1 to owners of about 118,000 taxable properties -- real estate that includes vacant, commercial, industrial and natural-resources properties as well as residences.

Colorado law requires assessors to set new appraised values for each property in the county every other year. Those values are based on what the real estate market was as of June 30 of the previous year -- in this case, as of June 30, 2012.

The new values will be part of the basis for calculating property tax bills that come due in 2014 and 2015.

Property owners will have until June 3 to file appeals of the assessor's decisions about their real estate values. State law doesn't allow people to file protests based solely on their objections to past or projected property tax bills, although they can seek adjustments if they think the latest values assigned by the assessor's office are incorrect, or if the assessor's information about their property is inaccurate.

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